Brazilian Star Wars!

I am about to commit BadTasteAbroad heresy but here goes: I didn’t mind Os Trapalhões na Guerra dos Planetas, or in bad movies circles, Brazilian Star Wars; it certainly was not as bad as Turkish Star Wars, and could even stand up to Star Wars (jk, jk). The plot was fun, if difficult to follow, and I had many a laugh out loud moment; if only they hadn’t done the sound effects via Windows Me sound (guy gets bopped—cue badop) and hired the Brazilian Bob James to score the film I think I’d start a new blog, Okay Taste Abroad.

To quote the annoying guy on line in Annie Hall I guess the film hit me at a “gut level;” life is a lot like Brazilian Star Wars—one day you are in a high-speed police chase, the next moment you are discoing it up with Chewbacca and what look to be like the Fanta girls in an earlier film credit, then you crack open a boulder-sized egg and a man in a chicken suit chases you halfway across the desert. Basic life stuff.

To try to explain the plot is difficult—I don’t understand Portuguese and the version I watched was neither subbed nor dubbed. From what I could make out, and trust me, it wasn’t much, the Brazilian comedy troupe, Os Trapalhões, is abducted from Earth. They meet Brazilian Darth Vader (who wears costume jewelry and has a disco aboard his “Death Star”) and he steals Brazilian Luke’s girlfriend. The Os Trapalhões embark on a mission to save her and in the process meet four models, humanoid disco dancers, and a man in a chicken suit. That they hang out in a cave stocked to the brim with giant mushrooms should come as a surprise to no one.

Yes, the movie is corny, and yes, the whole idea of an adult comedy for kids never really works, but at least unlike any other movie I’ve watched this summer, this one doesn’t take itself too seriously. Yes, that’s right, Os Trapalhões know how to have fun. They may not have the greatest sense of plot, their soundman should be shot, and I can’t really understand their dialogue (my fault, not theirs), but I would gladly pay ten dollars to see them send up any seventies movie. Let’s see where they take Jaws, for example. One moment there’s a giant shark, the next moment he is doing the hustle with Richard Dreyfuss. Just wait. It will happen. Four thumbs way up for Os Trapalhões and their excellent movie, however little I understood what happened. Let’s hear it for the seventies and let’s hear it for absurdity.